Beck telegraphing Imani Cross short-yardage runs

lo country said:
My point was when we went for it in the 4th IIRC, and it was 3rd and 1. PSU knew it was coming and stopped it. When they saw Cross, they knew it would be the dive play. I would have loved to have seen play action, you know, fake the ball to Cross so that the D collapses at the line, Martinez pulls out the ball and hits a dump pass to the TE dragging the middle. The play did work, on the goal line, and was a thing of beauty. Just hope that Beck opens the playbook more with Cross and uses the obvious to create some TD's dow the road.
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We're gonna need it if we make it to Indy..................Wisconsin is improved from when we played them from what I've heard. I haven't watched them personally so take that for what it is.

 
lo country said:
My point was when we went for it in the 4th IIRC, and it was 3rd and 1. PSU knew it was coming and stopped it. When they saw Cross, they knew it would be the dive play. I would have loved to have seen play action, you know, fake the ball to Cross so that the D collapses at the line, Martinez pulls out the ball and hits a dump pass to the TE dragging the middle. The play did work, on the goal line, and was a thing of beauty. Just hope that Beck opens the playbook more with Cross and uses the obvious to create some TD's dow the road.
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I think we'll see that. The change-ups are used less often than the main plays. Like that play where we faked sweep and hit Cotton over the middle after he had snuck behind the LBs. Wide open field.

 
zoogies said:
lo country said:
My point was when we went for it in the 4th IIRC, and it was 3rd and 1. PSU knew it was coming and stopped it. When they saw Cross, they knew it would be the dive play. I would have loved to have seen play action, you know, fake the ball to Cross so that the D collapses at the line, Martinez pulls out the ball and hits a dump pass to the TE dragging the middle. The play did work, on the goal line, and was a thing of beauty. Just hope that Beck opens the playbook more with Cross and uses the obvious to create some TD's dow the road.
Click to expand...
I think we'll see that. The change-ups are used less often than the main plays. Like that play where we faked sweep and hit Cotton over the middle after he had snuck behind the LBs. Wide open field.
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That was a great play and the LB's totally bit on that one.

 
lo country said:
My point was when we went for it in the 4th IIRC, and it was 3rd and 1. PSU knew it was coming and stopped it. When they saw Cross, they knew it would be the dive play. I would have loved to have seen play action, you know, fake the ball to Cross so that the D collapses at the line, Martinez pulls out the ball and hits a dump pass to the TE dragging the middle. The play did work, on the goal line, and was a thing of beauty. Just hope that Beck opens the playbook more with Cross and uses the obvious to create some TD's dow the road.
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A 100% success rate is unrealistic. In regards to that play, I thought at the time Cross could have had that first down if he had made a different cut/read, whatever you want to call it. I think he took it a little too far to the outside. That's just what I saw though and I could be wrong.

 
EbylHusker said:
Where is everyone saying Beck doesn't stick with something that is working?? You can't have it both ways. If you stick with something that's working, you run it until they stop it. Also, make sure to keep the thread spiffy, since they're apparently being locked if they annoy mods now. I'm sure we have some anti-annoyance ointment around here somewhere.
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Complain for WEEKS how we never see Cross in on short yardage situations and that if he were back there we'd convert every short yardage conversion and now people complain we see it too much?

 
I don't disagree with Beck's call. If he calls a rollout on that play everybody is screaming. He took a chance his thumper could get the yardage.

 
EZ-E said:
I don't disagree with Beck's call. If he calls a rollout on that play everybody is screaming. He took a chance his thumper could get the yardage.
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And I would say 90% of the time he gets that yard, just think how good this kid will be once he figures out the offense. Gonna be a bruiser!

 
For weeks I've been calling for at least 25 off-tackle short tosses per game. Can't complain any longer :P

 
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I thought it was a little odd too. Every single person in the stadium knew it was coming, and PSU was determined to stop that play specifically, so it seemed like a good opportunity for play-action or something.

 
But what would have happened if they would have ran a play action pass then Taylor misses an open man, or Reed or whoever drops the pass? We're back to square one bit*hing that Beck didn't run it with Cross.

 
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Cross's two short yardage TD runs came on first down and second down respectively. If they hadn't worked we might have tried something else like the OP called for. But they did work. So what is the issue?

 
clyde40 said:
But what would have happened if they would have ran a play action pass then Taylor misses an open man, or Reed or whoever drops the pass? We're back to square one bit*hing that Beck didn't run it with Cross.
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True, but why is play-action pass the only other option? A trap play using FB dive or naked run by Martinez after faking it to Cross are other high-percentage options

 
Maxconvert said:
clyde40 said:
But what would have happened if they would have ran a play action pass then Taylor misses an open man, or Reed or whoever drops the pass? We're back to square one bit*hing that Beck didn't run it with Cross.
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True, but why is play-action pass the only other option? A trap play using FB dive or naked run by Martinez after faking it to Cross are other high-percentage options
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This

Beck's playcalling after our big break in the endzone was pretty uninspired. You can only run AA wide and Cross on short-yardage so many times. We were just trying to hold on to the win rather than score and put the game away. TM was playing well, give him a bootleg pass-run option or play-action. When Beck was really trying to score in the second-half,mixing it up more, we were moving the ball all over PSU. We also had some meh playcalling in the first half on those redzone stops. We do still miss the every-down ability of Burkhead.

Not saying I'm unhappy with Beck but there were times I was frustrated with him today.

 
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